Brookfield native John Weinsheim has covered four Olympics.
"The 2012 London Olympics on beach volleyball for NBC Sports. And then I covered the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics with NBC Sports. That's the one where I got my first Emmy," recalls Weinsheim. "And then the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. And I just did the 2020 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, on beach volleyball."
Ask him which event was the most challenging, and Weinsheim has a quick response:
"It was definitely Tokyo, Tokyo and Pyeongchang."
He says Pyeongchang dealt out negative temperatures with 50 mph winds to make for a brutal windchill.
"And then the other one was the complete opposite of that, the Tokyo Summer Olympics," Weinsheim added. "On beach volleyball, where I was sitting in the sand, some days it was recorded 135 degrees... with 95% humidity. And it was literally like you get heatstroke the end of the first match and you'd have to do three matches in a row."
As a camera operator Weinsheim has had some incredible assignments, but one of his favorites was Deal or No Deal with Howie Mandell.
Sometimes the job can be hazardous like trying to get a shot from the basketball court.
"Kevin Durant from the Golden State Warriors slammed me and Draymond Green gave me a concussion for a month and a half when he put his knee into my head," says Weinsheim.
All those gigs have won Weinsheim four Emmys. From filming rock band Kiss, to posing with actress Charlize Theron, he has captured a lot. He shared pictures of basketball star LeBron James, legendary singer Tony Bennett, gold medalists April Ross, Jen Kesey, Lindsey Vonn, former Marquette, and NBA coach Doc Rivers and many more.
"I'm a complete freelancer," says Weinsheim of his work. "I work for NBC ABC, CBS, ESPN, Discovery, Travel channel, and TNT."
And after 34 years in the business he can pretty much choose his assignments. He was asked to go to the Olympics in Beijing, but admits the COVID protocols were just too much.
"I was told that you had to quarantine in a hotel for the weeks that you'd have to be there before you can even step outside, go to your events," Weinsheim says. "And I just didn't think I could pull that off."
So instead of the Olympics, John as invited to another huge job — he'll be covering the 2022 Super Bowl for NBC, though he doesn't know exactly what he'll be doing there.
"I don't know what my assignments going to be."
Not bad for a guy who admits he got his start doing whatever he was told when he was a UWM student working for Milwaukee's PBS station more than three decades ago.
Weinsheim says, "It's not a job it's an adventure!"
